An Illiterate Man Has Made A Grain Mill That Runs On Water

Raju Soni is a 40-year-old guard in a school in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh. An illiterate, Soni makes his living through his job at the school and his skill as a carpenter. But what he has achieved with his carpentry skills is something no highly-qualified engineer of the country has been able to.

Soni has built a grain mill that uses a stream of water from a hillock as fuel. Soni’s innovative mechanism is able to grind around 30kg wheat daily.

Soni’s hand crafted wooden turbine runs on water from a stream, which is directed on it using pipes. The rotating turbine starts moving attached grinding wheels. Wooden cogs help control the speed of the grinding wheels, the gap between the wheels, and the direction of the flow of water. Grains are fed to the grinder through a funnel-shaped basket.

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People in his village are all praise of Soni’s grain mill and regularly come to him for grain grinding. Collector K.C. Devsenapati himself visited Soni’s shed which houses the mill. He has now ordered municipal engineers to provide all necessary help to Raju.